S.F. loves to tweet about Muni, but New Yorkers prefer the weather

In San Francisco, the bus announcements periodically warn riders to “get to your destination safely: keep your eyes up and your phone down while riding Muni.”

Looks like they’re not paying attention — probably because they’re busy tweeting about their ride.

#Muni and #sfmuni top the list of San Francisco’s favorite hashtags, according to a list from London-based social media firm PeerIndex.

PeerIndex looked at the tweets of 1.6 million people living in either New York or San Francisco over a 30-day period ending March 5, the took out obviously spammy hashtags and other contest hashtags to focus on local interest during that month.

The hashtags don’t do a perfect job of capturing the city’s zeitgeist — many of the subjects (like #crunchies, a tech awards show held on Feb. 10, and #burningman, for which tickets went on sale on Feb. 26) saw spikes that are unique to this time of year rather than a general interest.

Hashtags also don’t represent broad hot topics very well. (Much easier to put down #winechat than to discuss the nuances of gentrification.) And as more hashtags are pushed at events, some Twitter purists eschew the pound sign except when mocking those who love them.

But we think hashtags pegged us correctly with #busterposey and #sfgiants. Baseball fever is year-round in San Francisco.

Source: PeerIndex

New Yorkers’ top spots went to weather-related hashtags — #cnywx and #hothchester, conflating the ice planet in Star Wars with a New York county.

New Yorkers also apparently love tagging local neighborhoods, hip nightclubs and #nycproblems. And their local transit — #mta — only ranks 27th. If only ours could do the same.